Pennsylvania monuments at Antietam
The monument at Antietam to the 128th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment is on Cornfield Avenue. (Cornfield Avenue West tour map) it was dedicated in 1905 by the State of Pennsylvania.
The regiment was commanded at the Battle of Antietam by Colonel Samual L. Croasdale, a lawyer from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The 128th was a recently formed unit signed up for nine months service which had been hurried into action with little drill or training.
Colonel Croasdale was killed very early in the day as the regiment moved out of the East Woods and into The Cornfield. Lieutenant Colonel William W. Hammersly then took over, but was almost immediately severly wounded in the arm. Major Joel B. Warner then took command and rallied the regiment, which held its position until relieved. Captain William Andrews of Company E, who had commanded the regiment when it left Pennsylvania for Washington before any field officers had been commissioned, was also killed.
Corporal Ignatz Gresser of Company D earned the Medal of Honor at Antietam for carrying a wounded comrade from the field under fire.
Text from the monument:
128th
Pennsylvania
Volunteer
Infantry
1st Brigade 1st Division
12th Corps
Location 315 feet North
Casualties at Antietam
Killed 26
Wounded 86
Missing 6
Total 118
Recruited in Berks, Lehigh
and Bucks Counties
Battles participated in
Antietam
Chancellorsville
Location of the monument
The monument to the 128th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment is north of Sharpsburg on the north side of Cornfield Avenue 325 yards east of the Hagerstown Pike (39°28’52.0″N 77°44’41.9″W).
See more on the history of the 128th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War